Page 47 - bneMag Oct23

bne October 2023 Southeast Europe I 47
Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, the second most powerful person and institution in Russia (after Putin and the presidency), and allegedly the only one who can influence Putin.
Indeed the targeting of Russians opposed to Putin’s regime started well before the invasion of Ukraine.
Back in May 2021, Vulin, then Serbia’s interior minister, handed Patrushev transcripts from meetings that members of the opposition Russian organisation Open Russia held in Belgrade. In December that year, Vulin and Patrushev formed a joint working group to fight ‘colourful revolutions’, daily Danas reported at the time.
Previously, Open Russia’s members had met in Belgrade believing that they were safe from their intelligence services and because they could go there without applying for a visa and triggering attention. However, the leader of the group, Andrei Pivovarov, was sentenced to four years in prison in February 2022. Another Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is also in prison now, told Serbian media back then that Pivovarov’s arrest was a result of Vulin’s actions.
When talking about the current situation, Volokhonsky said he believes that either Vulin personally or someone from his circle was behind the problems
he has faced extending his temporary residence permit.
“Vulin doesn’t hide that he is a politician who supports Russia. For him, Russia is a backbone and without it, Serbia cannot survive,” he told Danas.
Break from the past?
The BIA that Vulin heads is supposed to be independent of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, unlike the old Sector of State Security (DB) that it replaced. This transformation was supposed to signify a radical break from the past, after the DB conducted horrible crimes serving governments led by dictator and convicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic.
Even after the reforms, however, Serbian citizens and the media haven’t forgotten the past and try to keep an eye on the agency.
The situation with anti-war Russians was a perfect chance for Serbia to show that its intelligence is independent, and works based on the law and in service to the people of the country.
If decisions to expel anti-war Russians can be traced back to the BIA, that sets a dangerous precedent for Serbia, and also threatens the economy as foreign corporate giants look for an investment climate where rule of law is not just a phrase but reality.
Unfortunately, the way Serbian intelligence is structured is similar
to the Russian system, a direct consequence of Moscow’s influence
for decades, even centuries. It is not a secret that the Kremlin tries to recruit people that are part of the local system. Even today, Serbian and other regional intelligence agencies still have old fashioned methodology, and the old fashioned suspicion of foreigners persists. Old fashioned agents among intelligence service employees create networks by employing people that
are going to be loyal to them and
their doctrine, thus perpetuating
the problem.
This becomes part of a broader culture within the country as well. Overall, if exposure to Putin’s influence grows, nepotism and corruption grow. This usually means a downward trend
for foreign capital inflows or at least
a deterioration in the quality of investment. Consequently, when Serbia does attract FDI, it risks ending up with problematic investors that do not obey its legislation, do not respect human and labour rights and do not protect the environment.
Who is behind the targeting of Russian anti-war activists is still unclear, and there hasn’t been any official response from the government. If the public
put enough pressure on government,
it may cancel those decisions. Going back to the WW2 analogy, if Serbia
fails to do this, instead of being “Little Switzerland”, it risks becoming a “Little Argentina”, that rather than providing
a safe haven for Russians opposed to the war, may in future harbour current Russian leaders escaping retribution for their crimes.
Ann Smith has been following and
writing about transitional justice, war crimes, human rights, security (defence and terrorism), European and Euro- Atlantic aspirations and international relations in the Balkans since 2000. She holds a masters degree in humanitarian international law as well as in journalism/ political sciences.
Vladimir Volokhonsky. Photo: Personal archive
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